June 6, 2012

F*ck Me Ray Bradbury

June 6, 2012

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics — died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91.

We've got confirmation from the family as well as his biographer, Sam Weller.

His grandson, Danny Karapetian, shared these words with io9 about his grandfather's passing: "If I had to make any statement, it would be how much I love and miss him, and I look forward to hearing everyone's memories about him. He influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists, and it's always really touching and comforting to hear their stories. Your stories. His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theater, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him. He was the biggest kid I know."



More:
http://io9.com/5916175/rip-ray-bradbury-author-of-fahrenheit-451-and-the-martian-chronicles

June 6, 2012

"Oh, noes! The officer mercilessly beating that dude might need help! I'd better get back-up!"

"Oh, noes!!! The officer that mercilessly beat that dude, while I essentially aided and abetted, just mercilessly beat ME! WTF, dude!"

I hope the beating victim is going to be okay.

June 5, 2012

And they can keep it quiet, because every single union worker at the Chrysler plant is a Democrat?

That so couldn't happen.

Hey, this is my 66,666'th post!

June 5, 2012

WI Exit Polls Wave 1: Leinenkugel 40% Pabst Blue Ribbon on Ice 24% MGD 20% Beast Light 16%

WI Exit Polls Wave 1: Leinenkugel 40% Pabst Blue Ribbon on Ice 24% MGD 20% Beast Light 16%
https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/210077334886293504

June 5, 2012

Why comments (were turned) off on Ownby story

Why comments off on Ownby story
We've had several readers ask why we disabled comments on the stories about County Commissioner Jeff Ownby being arrested for indecent explosure on Sharps Ridge

Chuck Bowers wrote: "Your ban on bloggers' response to the County Commissioner's apparent no-no is puzzling and discomforting. Although i personally doubt it, it gives the appearance of bias and censorship. Please consider re-opening this item, which has widespread community interest. Doesn't the public have the right to weigh in on commission controversies? You have effectively compromised such a right."

Blogger Katie Granju wrote: "While I appreciate and supprt the News Sentinel's compassionate decision to disable commenting on this morning's Jeff Ownby stories, as someone who has been terribly traumatized by stories about my dead child in which commenters were allowed to have at our family all they wanted, I'd really like to see some standardized guidelines released to our community from our newspaper of record that clearly lay out how the decision is made regarding which specific stories receive the respectful kindness of disabled comments, and which stories are opened up to allow the mob to publicly to rip the subjects of that story to shreds."

It wasn't bias or selective compassion that prompted us to disable comments on that story. The fact is, we have learned that some subjects bring out the worst in comments. In our ongoing efforts to raise the level of civility in our comments, we have decided to be more aggressive in controlling these forums. That includes disabling stories that are sure to be trouble. Given the subject matter, if we had opened up the Ownby article to comments, we almost immediately would have been deleting many of them.

More:
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/editor/2012/05/why-comments-off-on-ownby-stor.shtml

June 5, 2012

Waukesha Stonewall: Officials Refuse to Say Who’s In Charge of Monitoring Elections, Counting Result

Waukesha Stonewall: Officials Refuse to Say Who’s In Charge of Monitoring Elections, Counting Results

County Executive Vrakas said Kathy Nickolaus had been removed from her duties, but evidence suggests she’s still in charge—and no one will comment or clarify

WAUKESHA – After a series of high-profile incidents that earned embattled Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus a reputation as most incompetent clerk in the nation, multiple calls for her removal were made by elected officials and even the rabidly pro-Walker Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board, who stated:

“This gubernatorial Recall is too important to leave in the hands of Kathy Nickolaus… How can the citizens of Waukesha have any confidence that something else won’t go wrong in the next election; something that will call into question the results? They can’t as long as Nickolaus remains in office.”

County Executive Dan Vrakas also called for the removal of Nickolaus from future election oversight, and praised her decision to comply with his request, saying: “When given the choice to step down or step aside, she made the right decision.” Yet multiple reports from last month’s primary election, including one in which Vrakas himself expressed extreme disappointment with her role in the process, suggest Nickolaus is still very much in charge of oversight, tabulation and reporting of election results in Waukesha County.

<snip>

According to a report on last night’s Fox News 6, a bipartisan group of concerned citizens requested Vrakas get a restraining order against Nickolaus to prevent her involvement in oversight of – and maintain confidence in – such high-stakes results in such an important area at the heart of Scott Walker’s base. Vrakas said he was “unavailable” for comment, and Nickolaus refused repeated request to clarify her role. This is the second recent report in which Vrakas, Nickolaus and GOP officials all repeatedly refused to clarify who’s actually in charge in Waukesha County.

More:
http://www.wearewisconsin.org/uncategorized/waukesha-stonewall-officials-refuse-to-say-whos-in-charge-of-monitoring-elections-counting-results/

June 5, 2012

Jewish Tourists Stoned in Jordan over 'Provocative Hats'

Source: Arutz Sheva Channel 7

Jewish Tourists Stoned in Jordan over 'Provocative Hats'
Arabic websites say religious Jewish visitors to Kerak were attacked with shoes and rocks.

Arabs in Kerak, Jordan, attacked Jewish tourists because they wore "provocative hats" and other items of clothing worn by religious Jews, according to Arab websites.

The incident took place Sunday afternoon, when a group of Jews visited the Jordanian tourist site, where a Crusader castle is located along with other attractions.

According to Al Jazeera, as translated by bloggers, "Salem Jeradat – who owns a grocery in the town – was surprised Sunday afternoon by a delegation of Jewish men and women who were wearing the clothing of religious Jews, which led him to throw his shoes at them."

"'Then the people of the town immediately approached the group, threw shoes and stones, and kicked them out of town,' Jeradat said. 'The people of Jordan do not accept the Jews entering their homeland, and the Araba Valley treaty between Jordan and the Zionist entity does not represent us.'"


Religious boys (file)
Israel news photo: Flash 90

Read more: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156556#.T84a-laVNkQ

June 5, 2012

Conservative Republican Knox County, TN Commissioner Jeff Ownby Arrested for Public Gay Oral Sex

Knox County Commissioner Jeff Ownby, arrested last week on an indecent exposure charge, will not resign from his 4th District seat and plans to attend Monday's board meeting to vote on the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, his attorney said Thursday.

In addition, defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs lambasted the Tennessee Department of Children's Services for telling the News Sentinel and other local media outlets that three foster children were removed from Ownby's home as a result of the arrest.

<snip>

Ownby, 45, a first-term commissioner, and John McCracken, 53, were arrested May 24 after police spotted the two performing oral sex on each other in Sharps Ridge Park in North Knoxville, according to court records. They were in public and did not attempt to hide their actions, the arrest warrant states.

<snip>

Ownby, who was released on a $500 bond hours after his arrest, was elected to represent the West Knoxville district in August 2010. A Republican, he has taken mostly a conservative stance to county spending.



More:
http://www.knoxnews.com/photos/2012/may/31/224858/


See also:

Commissioner Jeff Ownby
- 4th District

<snip>

Guided by the United States Constitution and strong religious beliefs, Commissioner Ownby wants to serve the 4th District and Knox County, to ensure the citizens a voice in their local government. He wants to bring back a conservative fiscal approach and make certain the taxpayers’ money is wisely spent.

Jeff was born on April 12th, 1967, at Baptist Hospital in downtown Knoxville. He comes from a big family including four brothers and two sisters. Jeff and his high school sweetheart, Jayme Nelson Ownby, have been married for 22 years. Jeff and Jayme reside in West Knoxville with their two sons, Jeffrey Carl II and Jeremy Charles and 5 foster children.

More:
http://www.knoxcounty.org/commission/commissioners/ownby.php



State: 3 foster children removed from home of Knox Commissioner Jeff Ownby

Three foster children have been removed from the home of Knox County Commissioner Jeff Ownby and further admissions of children to the home have been suspended, a state department spokeswoman said Friday.

Molly Sudderth, director of communications at the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, said the department through the Florence Crittenton Agency had three children in the Ownby home at the time of his arrest Thursday afternoon on an indecent exposure charge.

On Friday morning, they were taken from the Ownby home and put in another home, according to Sudderth. No more admissions are being allowed there, she said.

<snip>

Ownby is a longtime employee of Comcast. A Comcast vehicle was towed
Thursday from the Sharps Ridge scene and taken to the city's impound
lot, according to an employee of Clinton Highway Wrecker Service.

More:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/may/25/state-3-foster-children-removed-from-home-of/



Ownby affair raises an age-old question

<snip>

Doubtless some, if not many citizens of Knox County will call on Jeff Ownby to resign, as they believe his conduct didn’t just embarrass himself, but hurt his family and the foster children who we have to believe have been loved and well-cared for by the Ownbys. The issue citizens should be most interested in is not the fact that Commissioner Ownby was allegedly engaged in a homosexual encounter on Sharp’s Ridge, and it is not even the reality that if Ownby is guilty he has been unfaithful to his wife. Instead, Jeff Ownby’s chief political problem is that he disregarded his position as a Knox County Commissioner and the danger in which he might be placing that position-and with it perhaps the interests of his constituents-in order to enjoy what the writer to the Hebrews called “the pleasures of sin for a season.” (cf. Hebrews 11:25). In other words, Ownby disregarded his position and put it at risk, gambling that he would not be caught.

Jeff Ownby is far from alone in this kind of predicament in Tennessee politics. Former State Senator Paul Stanley (R-Memphis) was compelled to resign after he admitted to being blackmailed by the boyfriend of one of his interns. Stanley was blackmailed because he was having an affair with the young woman in question, her boyfriend knew it, and was attempting to extort money from Stanley in return for his silence. Paul Stanley was unwilling to be extorted, and it cost him his political career. Today, a repentant Stanley admits that he was not only wrong, but says that leaving office took him out of a situation that wasn’t healthy for the personal or spiritual life of the devout Christian who is presently the politics editor for the Christian Post. Politics doesn’t have to be a negative profession for everyone involved in it, but being around and involved in politics does take an unshakable moral resolve that you will not do things which you know could endanger your family or career.

For reasons yet unknown to this writer and to many others, political leaders with very public positions endanger themselves, their families, and their careers every day by engaging in behavior-sexual and otherwise-that could cause irreparable harm to their reputations because they believe that unlike others before them, they somehow won’t get caught. As we have seen, your sins will find you out-especially in politics. The question then must be asked to those whose reputations are harmed by their own actions: Was it worth the trouble it caused? Did you really believe that the rest of the world wouldn’t find out?

More:
http://www.examiner.com/article/ownby-affair-raises-an-age-old-question

June 4, 2012

RIP, Trololo Guy, Eduard Khil

Trololo is a video of the nationally-honored Russian singer Eduard Khil (AKA Edward Khill, Edward Hill) performing the Soviet-era pop song “I am Glad, ‘cause I’m Finally Returning Back Home” (Russian: Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой . The video is often used as a bait-and-switch prank, in similar vein to the practice of Rickrolling.

<snip>


Khil’s Illness and Death

On May 28th, 2012, the world news site Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty[5] reported that Eduard Khil had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke. The following day, the Russian entertainment news site RT[11] published an article titled “Trololo man in critical health condition”, stating that Khil had suffered irreversible brain damage and was in a coma. The article went on to report that Khil may survive if he underwent immediate surgery, but doctors could not guarantee recovery. On June 4th, Khil died at a hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, one week after suffering from the stroke. The death was subsequently covered by various news sites including The Washington Post[13], Ria Novosti[14] and The Huffington Post.[15] The same day, a Reddit[16] post titled “Eduard Khil (‘Trololo Guy’) dies in St. Petersburg, aged 77” reached the front page, accumulating over 18,000 up votes in 11 hours.

More:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trololo-russian-rickroll#fn7